PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COUNSELLING UNION

Question 1

¹ PCU's statement on conversion therapy

Answer

Following feedback from members and other groups, the Committee has agreed the following statement to clarify our position. The Psychotherapy and Counselling Union does not accept the practice of 'conversion/ reparative therapy', or any forms of therapy that attempt to change the client's sexual orientation, gender identity, or consenting sexual expression Such approaches are inherently unethical and potentially harmful. We do not recognise them as valid forms of therapeutic practice. Therefore, those overtly or covertly practicing 'conversion therapy' are not welcome as members of the PCU and will not be represented by the PCU.
For further information on this issue, see UKCP's statement and the Memorandum of Understanding.

Question 2

The Psychotherapy and Counselling Union (PCU), founded in 2016, is committed to our mission of standing up for therapists and the future of therapy.

Bring together counsellors, psychotherapists and other practitioners from every corner of the field, including trainees on an equal basis

Campaign for true diversity and equal opportunities in the therapy world, and support individuals who are discriminated against.¹

Campaign to reform IAPT and other ‘therapy-lite’ substitutes, while at the same time supporting IAPT practitioners with their grievances.

Campaign against the use of therapy to get people off benefits and/or back to work.²

Change the system whereby starting practitioners have to work unpaid, often with very complex issues and without adequate support.

Campaign to defend and extend the provision of open-ended therapy which is free at the point of contact, and where the client can choose their practitioner and modality.

Support and defend practitioners in disciplinary hearings, and also against bullying and harassment.

Support and defend therapy against attacks from government and media, and against creeping medicalisation.

Establish a policy and research unit to develop solid positions on a wide range of issues.

Answer

As written in our constitution our aims are:

Question 3

² PCU's 2018 resolution: this union declares itself resolutely opposed to the government’s policy and programme of ‘Austerity.’

Answer

Despite claims that ‘We’re all in it together’ it is patently clear that we are not, and it is in fact ‘class war’ by another name. The poor are made to suffer for the excesses of the rich. We take this position both as a union of workers whose stock in trade is the understanding of psycho-social processes and psychological motivations, and as members of the wider trade union movement which we encourage to be more vigorous and outspoken in its opposition.
Most particularly, we oppose the programme ‘Workfare’ in which an attempt has been made to co-opt psychotherapy and counselling into the process of scapegoating the unemployed by claiming their unemployment is their own psychological problem, and sending people for therapy which they do not want under the threat of sanction if they do not comply. This ‘psycho-compulsion' is one of the many meaningless compulsions of the Workfare programme, all of which we regard as an attack on the poor and vulnerable in an attempt to scapegoat them for the problems created by the neoliberal economic model and its implementation by this government. It is moreover serving as a way of disciplining the whole workforce: Taking away the welfare safety net makes everyone in employment who does not have significant reserves to fall back on that much more vulnerable and anxious about opening their mouths, joining a trade union or in any other way attempting to assert their rights and protest about their conditions. Psychocompulsion constitutes an abuse of therapy and places therapists in a highly problematic and indeed compromised position where they are being required to function as agents of oppressive government policy. We further call on all psychotherapists and counsellors and all agencies employing psychotherapists or counsellors, and members of all other trade unions to offer support and encouragement for therapists who refuse to collaborate with the Workfare programme in any way.